Meet Me in the Bathroom: Documentary Shows How 9/11 Shaped New York’s Indie Music Scene

In 2021, the trend forecaster Mandy Lee predicted the return of “indie sleaze,” referring to the hedonistic, unfiltered UK and US indie music scene that spanned from 2006 to 2012. By March 2023, images of “mid-latest decadence and the indie sleaze party that died in 2012,” has amassed more than 135,000 followers.

The appetite is there, then, for Meet me in the bathroom. Based on the 2017 book of the same name, the documentary is an oral history and “immersive journey through” the New York scene.

Before the “seedy” era of indie, the New York music scene exploded in the early 2000s, with bands like LCD Sound systemInterpol and The White Stripes that transformed the genre for the rest of the decade.

His influence is still felt today. The Sheffield Gang Arctic Monkeysopened their 2018 album Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino with lyrics referencing the defining band of the New York indie scene: “I just wanted to be one of The Strokes.”

The documentary brings together fan footage, video diaries of the band, and news broadcasts. These frames are laced with audio, some from witty media interviews, others that sound like they’ve been etched into a can.

Indie music is a sonic collision of alternative rock, pop and electronics. The independent artist, like his punk predecessor, is a “bricoleur”: a multi-task performer who takes whatever tools and materials are available to create something new.

The structure of the documentary is presented in a bricolage way through the fragmented narration of a city undergoing great changes. The attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 changed New York’s independent music scene. Shock waves were sent through the city and its inhabitants, including a generation of young musicians.

Indie, like the bricoleur, works with a collection of fragments to form something new. In response to the 9/11 attacks, New York’s indie scene was transformed both sonically and physically, just as bands like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs moved from Manhattan to Brooklyn’s Williamsburg.

The impact of 9/11 on the New York independent scene

Asking Meet Me in the Bathroom to be as extensive as its source material would be an impossible task. The 621-page book follows the New York music scene from 1999 to 2011, while the highlight of the documentary is 9/11 and its aftermath.

The claustrophobia and paranoia of the city are depicted through shots of the news channels’ coverage of 9/11 while the music of Yeah Yeah Yeahs plays in the background. The documentary also uses images heartbreaking of fans capturing a city in mourning and a community of musicians processing that into their music.

Scenes of a mass exodus from Manhattan are transformed into an acoustic rendition of New York’s Like a Graveyard (2001) by The Moldy Peaches, the first independent band to follow the documentary. Although not written as a response to 9/11, the song’s release coincided with the attacks. It takes on a specific meaning, distinct from its original intent, as it is paired with the footage.

A notable shift in the documentary occurs here, as the concert footage no longer represents the youth culture surrounding independent music. Rather, New York’s independent concerts represent a loss of innocence

As the camera pans over a sweaty crowd, both the audience and the musician experience a collective trauma. The experience of both the loss of loved ones and a once familiar city. In one scene, Yeah Yeah Yeahs singer Karen O shares that, for her, acting offered escapism.

Original article published in The Conversation, written by Amy McCarthy, PhD researcher in English literature at York St John University.